


O Great Magic 8-Ball, What Shall You Say?

by luminoussalt



Category: Just Roll With It (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Just guys being pals, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, also the vengolors are humans, i guess they own their homes in some complicated nearly college way??, i miss them so bad chat, taxi human au, very very vague romance at first but i promise there is stuff at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 04:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30033069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luminoussalt/pseuds/luminoussalt
Summary: Taxi comes over to hang out with the Vengolors on a Friday with their new gaming system! Stuff eventually becomes a good mess :}
Relationships: Taxi/Br'aad Vengolor
Kudos: 5





	O Great Magic 8-Ball, What Shall You Say?

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!! here i am back again with the comfort ship lol,, this originally was meant to be a personal little thing and i did spend sporadic periods between days working on this and not rereading this (+ some things are cut for the community's eyes) so it may feel a bit choppy... anyhoo, I hope you enjoy some pals hanging out :D  
> it's a rather short one, but yea!! it's still quite healing to "losing" the fated lol

Today was going to be a fun day, Taxi decided as he gathered up some snacks to bring and started heading down to the Vengolor house. Recently, Br’aad and Sylnan had got a new Xbox 360 and some games from craigslist, and they invited Taxi to hang out.

He had mentally checked- even physically checked- to see if he had done all of his homework, if his stove was off, and if he had properly brushed his teeth and brushed his hair. Thankfully he had already done that all once before and he was getting to spend some free time on the fresh arrival of the Friday weekend. The sun was starting to set at 7 already, and he observed the nature of the simple neighborhood he had already seen many times. Personally, the charm of his neighborhood never wore off on him, as he had always appreciated his surroundings against the harshness of life. When he was ever feeling lost, a walk would do wonders.

As he arrived at the door of the familiar and slightly dilapidated home, he knocked and waited, hearing the running footsteps of Br’aad coming to answer the door.

“Taxi!!!” the largely excited blonde exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Taxi and squeezing him in a hug.

“B-Br’aad-” Taxi choked out, a bit in pain, welcoming the usual chaotic welcome.

Sylnan walked up to the door, scratching his hair nervously. A black cat with very very short hair followed him, its yellow eyes looking at Taxi expectantly. “O-oh hey Taxi! Welcome! I guess you can come on in…” he trailed off, seeing Br’aad was still hugging Taxi but now trying to squeeze all the air out of him, “or whenever you get let go from Br’aad’s death trap arms.”

Hearing Sylnan basically slander his hug, Br’aad let go of Taxi and flipped Sylnan off. Sylnan scoffed and gestured Taxi to come inside and put the snacks down while closing the door behind him.

Their living spaces were not.. the best. Obviously for being orphans, they were given some inheritance from their parents, but it was enough for them to afford the bare minimum of what they needed. Taxi didn’t blame Sylnan for whatever odd jobs he was taking so he could compensate for their bills, food, schooling, and other things. But with a very worn couch, old tv, shaggy rug, and a refurbished coffee table, it felt pretty homey.

“So what games did you guys get?” He asked, getting himself situated on the left edge of the couch as usual.

Br’aad plopped down in the middle with a controller and 2 unlabeled disc cases, one with “H (3)” and the other with “D (1)” in his hands.

“As far as we know, we have Halo 3 and Diablo on here.”

“Yeah- we’re _hoping_ that they’re not fucked up or something, because honestly we’ve been excited to play on this for a bit…” Sylnan commented, finally setting the TV to show the HDMI channel and sitting down on the right part of the couch.

Br’aad held out the 2 discs to Taxi, looking at him with sudden seriousness. “These discs will choose your fate. Choose wisely,” he said, his face restraining a smile.

Playing along, Taxi nodded and cleared his throat, aware of Sylnan also watching with slight interest. He pointed to Halo 3, and Br’aad nodded solemnly. “You seem to have chosen the well-trodden path. Off you go!” And he handed the cd to Sylnan.

“Y’know you're going to have to wash the dishes for this?” Sylnan rhetorically asked, putting the disk in as Br’aad sat up indignantly.

“What?? All you did was put the disk in! And turn on the tv!”

“And get everything set up for the Xbox AND the tv, and buy the stuff, and-”

“Alright alright, I get it!” Br’aad exclaimed, exasperatedly throwing his hands up and leaning back into the couch, with a sigh, defeated.

Sylnan took the other controller and waited for Br’aad to start the game as they all smiled to themselves about the familiar tune being played on the main screen. And as they started playing, they started dicking around and jokingly shooting the soldiers on their side, and Taxi took it to himself to keep the conversation going.

“-so I just don’t understand! Why would you eat a grapefruit whole?? Like with the stuff outside of the fruit flesh or whatever??” Sylnan was ranting, shotgunning a large enemy frustratedly.

“Well, it doesn't matter if you put sugar on it! I mean it takes less effort too and is less bitter!” Taxi rebutted, looking across at Sylnan, glancing at Br’aad for a second to see his reaction.

Br’aad was rather impartial on the subject since he did both, whenever they had extra sugar packets from a restaurant laying around, but he did add “Maaaybe you should put some more effort into your grapefruit eating skills, Saxi!” This earned a disgruntled groan from Taxi, who jabbed his elbow into Br’aad’s side.

“Oh was that light breeze that just hit my side?” He joked, nudging Sylnan, “I thought we had the windows duct-taped to keep the wind from blowing between the cracks!”

“Uhh yeah- are you still feeling co-”

“Your _brother_ is being an asshole!” Taxi shouted, pushing Br’aad, and causing him to push Sylnan as well.

“God fuckin-” Sylnan cursed, getting killed as a result of losing focus while fighting some enemy with a really explosive hammer weapon. He shoved Br’aad into Taxi, who nervously felt his skin prickle as they got way closer to each other than he expected. Taxi furrowed his brow at whatever response that was, but pushed it off as Br’aad leaned back into his spot and the contact was lost.

They got pretty far into the game but they were already feeling pretty tired at the 3-hour mark and decided to turn it off.

Br’aad stretched his wrists satisfactorily and sighed. “Seems like you chose well, Taxi! It’s good this disc isn’t fucked up or anything, seems like Craigslist didn’t fuck us over this time.”

Sylnan nodded at Br’aad saying “this time,” noting a time when they got scammed… probably not something good to bring up.

Getting up and eating a last chip, Br’aad’s eyes widened. “Ohhh fuck.”

Nervously, Sylnan looked at Br’aad. “Uh. Yeah?” He asked, cocking his head.

“I gotta finish up my homework- I mean I got fucking _studying_ to do- shit, that didn’t cross my mind!” Br’aad expressed, in an unbelieving voice with a few nervous chuckles in there. Taxi knew that school was hard on Br’aad, especially with how he took a gap year from high school to sort himself out, causing him to have strained himself really hard in the summer over school. In a way, it was almost traumatic with all the stress he went through just to catch up.

“I-it’s okay! It’s okay!” Taxi choked out, slowly moving towards Br’aad. He was reaching a hand out to him, asking silent permission if he could calm him down through touch. Br’aad’s subconscious grasp on his arms lightened, and Taxi started to rub his shoulder.

Sylnan, familiar with this scenario went over to fix Br’aad a glass of water, and eyed Taxi cautiously.

“I mean I can help! I got whatever you need probably in my head..” Taxi suggested, leading Br’aad to sit down.

Closing his eyes and sighing, Br’aad nodded a bit. “I-I guess so. It would be good for you to help, I guess, the lesson plan notes don’t make sense sometimes.” He accepted the glass of water, took a deep breath in, and sat on the couch for a minute longer before getting up, a weak look of determination in his eyes. “It may be…” he searched for a clock, and instead turned on his phone, “...10:54, but we can do this?”

“Better now than never…” Taxi almost wistfully said, getting a weird look from Sylnan.

“Well uhhh… you guys can go ahead and do that… I’m gonna go and do my own things…”

And left to their own devices, they headed to Br’aad’s room and started to try and crack down on the work ahead of them.

Sitting next to each other at a folding table, Taxi guided Br’aad’s notes through breaking down explanations, clearing up misunderstandings, and giving him hints as to what step was next. Taxi _thought_ he barely remembered bio, but it seemed to come naturally to him. It was the only class he really enjoyed anyway, and he was glad he could help.

“So which process occurs if there is no oxygen?” Taxi quizzed him, watching him fill out the diagrams of cells.

“Fermentation?” Br’aad said, unsure, but with a bit of confidence finally in his voice.

Taxi nudged him lightly in affirmation, “Mhm! It’s the only anaerobic process a cell can go through, since everything else like photosynthesis is aerobic!”

Br’aad wiped his face slowly with his hand, showing a lot of exhaustion from just sitting around and cramming things into his head. He did want to stand back up or go back on his phone for a second, but the magic 8 ball caught his eye instead. Taxi saw that Br’aad was already finishing doing his homework, and decided he could probably finish the rest in the morning, so he decided to follow Br’aad’s next string of decisions.

Standing up and grabbing the 8 ball off the shelf of his knickknacks, Br’aad grinned mischievously. “Wanna try this out?”

“O-oh! I-I mean sure, I don’t have anything in mind, but yes, I’d like to!” Taxi stuttered, not sure what to do with himself.

Br’aad laughed, “Ooookay! Time to ask this thing what it thinks!” And started shaking the ball.

“First question. Is Taxi a catboy?” And Taxi felt himself jump up in surprise and indignation.

“H-hey! That’s not fair! That’s-”

“It says ‘Perhaps…’ so that’s _totally_ a yes!”

Walking over to Br’aad, he “snatched” the ball out of his hands, the little resistance probably as a tease to his strength. But not knowing what to ask, he stared at it blankly.

Then after a few seconds, he asked a dumb question in his head, shook it, and it said “Outlook not clear. Ask again later,” disappointing Taxi in a way he didn’t expect to feel about such a dumb question as “Does Br’aad have a crush on me?”

Br’aad smiled impishly at this quiet shake and downtrodden reaction, needing to poke at this. “So whaddya ask it? About becoming a millionaire? Getting into your dream college? Seeing if someone you li-” and as soon as he saw Taxi visibly react to the last question, he jumped on the opportunity.

“N-no, al-alright? It was-”

“So, who do you have a crush on? This feels like we’re in elementary school again.”

“I-I won’t say!”

And so Br’aad listed off random students in the class, seeing how he got visibly more nervous and flushed when he mentioned members of their friend group.

“I mean it can’t be Velrisa, because you liked her in freshman year…” and he looked at Taxi with a weirded-out face. “It’s not Sylnan, is it?”

Taxi internally was regretting this. It was a tiny thing in his head that he kept repressed and invalidated, and at this moment he didn’t want to confront this tiny crush he had on Br’aad.

“Gods, no! N-no offense, he is quite h-handsome and has a wonderful g-girlfriend but it’s not him!”

There was a very palpable silence as Br’aad understood, and Taxi knew that he had caught on.

“S-so…” Taxi started, feeling like he was welded in place and about to get judged guilty for some crime he didn’t commit. His heart was racing and he couldn’t make the infrequent eye-contact anymore, staring at his fidgeting hands.

He heard the ball being shaken, a sigh, and then Br’aad’s hand cupping his chin, sending way too many prickles down his spine.

“Yeah…” Br’aad whispered, leaning in, closing the gap between them.

~~"I'm a gamer." ** _I_** whispered, because brainrot from that phrase~~

His kiss was really light, testing the waters to see if he read the situation right. Taxi responded patiently, slightly deepening the kiss to see if Br’aad was ok with it.

They pulled back, and Taxi looked down at Br’aad, whose face was much less red than his, but still blushing. “Huh. Didn’t expect this to happen today, but what do you know?”

Taxi nodded, and looked over to his bed. “Do you think we should.. sit down for this?”

“Y-yeah… uh. Yeah.”

Sitting down, Taxi held Br’aad’s pale face in his hand, admiring his purple and blue eyes. “W-wow…” he breathed, not really sure what to say.

“What, are you fucking gay? Looking at me in my eyes like that?” Br’aad jokingly asked, slinging his arms around Taxi’s neck.

“S-seems like yeah!” Taxi said, kissing him on the forehead, putting a strand of his golden hair behind his ear.

Wordlessly, they shuffled to a laying position to cuddle it out and enjoy each other's company, Taxi hugging Br'aad from behind and both of them soaking in the buzzing and content mood of each other.

“Mm… how do you fit on this??” Taxi asked incredulously, his tall body bent and entangled with Br’aad’s so he didn’t fall off.

Br’aad shrugged, tapping Taxi on the nose, “Dunno, seems like I’m not the tall one who needs a fancy big bed to support me!”

“It’s only a full!”

“You’re only a _fool_! C’mere, let me shut your mouth up.”

“Only if you promise me that you will like me later on?”

“Pfft, of course I will! Who else was crushing on you for _6 years_ secretly? Nobody, I hope!”

Taxi turned to stare at the ceiling. “6 years?”

“Uh… yeah… that sounds dumb, huh.”

“Nonono i-it’s fine! Just. Woah. I…”

“Mm… well don’t worry anyways, l-let's just move on, huh?”

“Yeah,” Taxi looked over at Br’aad, feeling his heart soften, "I... I would like for whatever we have here to work out. It just seems so funny that we liked each other for so long... and never thought to say anything about it!"

A small amused sigh came from Br'aad, "Yeah... me too."


End file.
